shen

The same Rudders that has gilded Jamie and his family? I love Vardy as much as the next Leicester fan and I don't blame him one bit, but silly contracts have greatly contributed to this mess in the first place.

Diegem update: January window just closed and I am sitting in a lofty 6th place, just three(!) points off Brugge in second. After a stop-start opening ten games (W4 D1 L5), I went on a run of 11 games unbeaten and notably beat Brugge away 0-1. It's all down to the tactics, trying to pay special attention on how to counter my opponents. I'm surprised I'm getting as many goals as I am (the quality of my players is quite shocking), but I'm also surprised at how terrible my goalies are who keep letting in long shots which I largely restrict opponents to. There is a real chance I could make Europe, although the transfer window was a major blow. I'm bleeding money, even with my modest wage budget of 50k per week and the board took control of player sales with a week to go, selling my most promising prospect for a measly 250k to Standard and another prospect for 85k to Gent, while letting a 16 year old go on loan for free (wtf?). Then they have the gall to be disappointed and blame ME for those transfers, while my captain and half my squad became furious that the hot prospect was sold (he was my backup leftback). Disastrous week which led to a hurried emergency loan left back to appease the squad. I had even freed up 6k in wages and 80k in transfer income as well. The good news is I will likely finish midtable at worst, hopefully top half. The prize money is oddly staggered finishing 8th would net me 800k more than 11th so every single place counts. I missed a golden opportunity to reach the cup semis, but after penalty wins over non-league opposition and Gent away in the 1/8 finals, I blew it against OH Leuven at home in the QF, despite dominating. That would have been a little extra income and some rep boost, but alas.

Everyone should boo them for 90minutes at the next home game. Utter embarrassment all the way through.

Conor Chaplin as well...

It's amazing how much this team can keep disappointing. We keep reaching new lows. It should be impossible to be this poor.

Rewatched the highlights, he really played a blinder in fairness to him. I didn't recall us having so many efforts on target. The Skipp save, the double save on Mav and Ricardo (both poor efforts though) and the Ayew save were outstanding.

Almost wish they hadn't

But we have 19 shots 8 on target. We should be winning this game!

Because why would players give up their pension for the sake of the club? Ricardo is on CL wages. Nobody was getting Casemiro, Sancho, Sterling, Grealish etc when they were very clearly much overpaid.

How? Who would pay his exorbitant wages? Not even the oil-rich ME clubs would fall for that trap.

He had some pretty poor moments with us when he got the chance. One of those where you could see there was talent, but you were starting to doubt he'd make it at our level.

Nah, I honestly am not interested. There'll be token interest in Norway seeing as my in-laws are Norwegian, but I really can't muster any enthusiasm whatsoever.

With Denmark failing to qualify, there will be even less reason for me to watch any games of the WC. I will probably catch highlights of the interesting games and otherwise just read the results. Life really is too short for 48-team WC tournaments.

Those names all sound made up

To be fair, they won all their games and lost out to red hot Norway, who themselves had been underwhelming for a good ten years or more.

I'd honestly struggle to name half their starting lineup. Gone are the days of Baggio, Maldini, Costacurta, Totti, de Rossi, Inzaghi et al.

I don't really care much, because Denmark didn't deserve anything after bottling it against Belarus in the group stage and surrendering to Scotland at the slightest hint of pressure. But the fact one team in each bracket got home advantage in knockout games seems ridiculous. Why they couldn't play the games on neutral ground like the intercontinental playoffs, is bizarre. Add in that it was a luck of the draw thing and didn't take into account seeding, is so unorthodox too.

Czechia through. Terrible penalties by Denmark. I still cannot fathom not hitting the target when you're an attacker.

...And another twist! Kasper Høgh, the Bodø/Glimt sensation, getting the equaliser. He's confessed to being very religious. Maybe this is a minor miracle in the happening

Czechia sheethousing their way to the WC...

Yeah, the whole Nations League back door thing feels a bit weak. Feel for Kosovo.

Thanks - I've already taken 6 points from 9, only losing to 95th minute winner at Standard. Probably have to make the most out of my start as my squad is threadbare in all areas but central midfield. I was probably too generous in my second season, signing anything that would improve my squad - most of them on two year deals. Even though they're only on 1,5-2k a week, no-one is touching them. Having 0 scouting range outside of Belgium makes scouting for players tedious as well and loans are really tough to get for free (maybe that's my club reputation being a factor). The two players I signed were incidentally from using the good ol' International Caps filter trick - got a solid Syrian and Iraqi in like this. I will try to add Serbia, thanks for the tip!

Don't get to play much lately with Diegem, but the second season (and turning pro) proved a bit challenging. I received a wage budget of 42k per week, but I obviously wasn't able to sign players on amateur contracts anymore - and the wages are actually quite high. So I ended up keeping as many amateurs that I could (some got poached), tying the most promising ones up on professional contracts in the hope they would develop or result in profit. I ended up winning the league by a point (55pts from 28 games) drawing my closest rival Patro Eisden in the final game. In past editions, I could vastly overperform with inferior players with an aggressive and very offensive tactic, but I quickly realised that wasn't going to work here. Instead it was a cautious and defense first approach that got me the required consistent results. Off the pitch, the finances were in a mess. I was renting USGs stadium but only filling up a quarter to a third of the seats - and with there being 0 income other than weak ticket sales and a cup run to the QF (eliminated by Club Brugge), which netted me just £14k, which was paid out to players as a bonus anyway 😄, I was in trouble. I then hadn't considered the wage increases to all my pro players, who promptly inflated by wages by 35% - massive oversight on my part! 1,3mil in the red in the lead up to my first Jupiter Pro season... Takeover rumours came and went when suddenly one actually happened! The club took a 1,6 mil loan, but now requested that I somehow generate 400k in transfers - which is just impossible. Add to that they only increased my wages budget to 52k, which was basically eaten up by the promotion clauses already. I'm basically f*****. None of my players are worth more than a few hundred grand and none of them are generating any interest. I do have a few excellent YT prospects, one of whom Genk keep bidding for (max of 160k though), but he will easily be worth tenfold in a year if I keep him. I fully expected I could strengthen with some free signings, but my reputation is so low that genuine improvements are choosing to go to the division below or to obscure Leagues instead. I've only managed two signings that improve the team, but given I've also lost a couple and cannot get rid of dead wood or extend the contracts of my actually good players, my team feels effectively weaker as I'm still carrying amateurs but in a much, much harder league. The only solace is that there are a few teams that have a wage budget below £100k as well, so I hope I can squeeze above them over the course of the season.

Weirdly enough, Verstappen's complaints sound genuine to me. But I feel they're borne out of a general frustration of being in the F1 circus. He's never seemed like someone that would stay as long as Vettel, Hamilton or Alonso. And with Mateschitz' passing, the whole ordeal with Horner, the constant negative press (especially since that Abu Dhabi race), the unnatural racing of this rule set - it's not surprising to see him becoming jaded and looking elsewhere. I don't like the guy at all, but he's proven everything he needed to in F1 and can probably retire wealthy, enjoying a less glitzy, but fun racing career elsewhere.

I don't think Kramaric was someone most wanted gone in the first place. But in hindsight it was probably the right decision for all parties.